Pierre Ménard

By David Keck

Last week we talked about the beautiful wines of Thomas Batardiere, so in the interest of continuing the Loire theme, we wanted to write about another producer from the Anjou region, ALSO a cool kid doing amazing work in the Layon sub-region. Enter Pierre Ménard.

Pierre’s parents work 20 hectares of beautiful old vine Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc that they sell to the local co-op. Pierre decided to section off small parcels and begin farming them biodynamically for his own label with his first release emerging to stellar acclaim in 2013.

This region is famous for botrytis-rich dessert wines (botrytis, or ‘noble rot’ is the humidity-caused fungal growth that helps create some of the world’s famous dessert wines such as Sauternes, Tokaji, etc.), but Pierre produces all of his dry wines without the presence of botrytis. The wines are mineral, driven, clean, and thoroughly chuggable 

Chenin Blanc (feel free to continue using the hashtag #cheninblanchonkytonkbadonkadonk) is one of the most exciting grapes in the world and sees some of its most beautiful expressions in the Loire Valley. We can’t stop drinking it over here and wanted you to have one more option available in VT. 

Pierre Ménard’s ‘Clos des Mailles’ 2017 is not perhaps an everyday wine (at least by price-point), but we don’t get much of it, anyway, so worth a special night! Dry, rich, high-acid without being aggressive, this wine is 80% vinified in oak, so has a touch of that oxidative element, without dominating the flavor profile.

This is our first time bringing in Pierre’s wines and we’re really excited about what the future holds!